Rodwell hasn’t played for City since coming on as an 89th-minute substitute in the 3-0 win over Sunderland on October 6, after suffering his latest injury on England Under-21 duty.

He has appeared just six times for the Premier League champions since his £12m move from Everton in the summer, starting twice.

In December, Rodwell admitted he had suffered a setback and was targeting a January comeback. But Mancini revealed the 21-year-old had only returned to training last week and might now be ruled out until next month.

Mancini said: “I’m worried because when we bought him we thought that he was a good player and then he has these problems with his hamstrings.

“He’s getting better and we hope we can maybe recover him in two or three weeks. He needs to start to work with the group but he didn’t do this until Thursday.”

Rodwell has been plagued by injury since making his Everton debut as a 16-year-old in 2007. He only once played more than 30 games in five seasons at Everton and last season made only 14 Premier League appearances. Mancini is keen for Rodwell to get back to full fitness with midfielders Yaya Toure and Abdul Razak in South Africa as part of Ivory Coast’s Africa Cup of Nations squad. If Ivory Coast reach the final the pair won’t return until after February 10.

The City manager is convinced that Rodwell, capped twice by England, can make himself a first-team regular at the Etihad Stadium.

But, for now, the Italian is just hoping that he can shake off his latest injury problem.

Mancini said: “We hope we can improve this situation for him because he’s young, he’s got quality, he has everything to have a good career.”